Let’s talk about SaaS companies that excel. No matter how you call it, top SaaS companies, biggest SaaS companies, the thing is that you have to pay close attention to these 7 SaaS companies to learn from them.
These companies have paved the way for other companies in many fields. Some have perfectly reacted to the effects of the pandemic and provided great convenience to users while making the most out of the situation for their business.
These top SaaS companies will help you learn how you can survive a long time in the market as a SaaS business, how you can adapt and adjust to situations, and how you can run successful businesses.
Let’s dive in!
What is SaaS?
SaaS stands for Software as a Service. A central host delivers your software as you subscribe to their services in this type of business. It is considered one of the biggest industries. You can check this article to have a more comprehensive understanding of what SaaS is.
Top SaaS Companies
Now, it is time to see what the top SaaS companies are. This way, you can learn from what they have achieved and see the common pattern which is required to come up with your SaaS idea. Also, note that this list is not in a particular order.
1- Zoom
As of writing this article, we are still in the pandemic – and it seems we will be here for a while. Zoom has become one of the successful SaaSs during this pandemic. If we are to summarize Zoom, we could say that Zoom is a web conferencing tool that provides its users with lots of features – including screen share, controlling the sharer’s screen, etc.
According to a report Zoom published in August, the company has a revenue of $1 billion. This number is %54 higher than the same time last year. Without a doubt, if the remote-working culture becomes even more mainstream, we will see higher numbers from Zoom.
There are several reasons why Zoom is people’s choice. Here is the list;
- Zoom is simplistic. All it takes to join a meeting is just a couple of clicks. Voila! You are seeing your coworkers or teacher or classmates. Simple as that!
- The infrastructure of Zoom is also quite easy to use. You don’t have to be an IT expert to implement Zoom into your institution’s apps.
- Zoom has a different number of safety measures to keep your video conference safe. Since people want to feel safe, Zoom becomes an option instantly.
The free plan of Zoom just works fine for a couple of contexts. Moreover, if you want to have more features or host more people in a video call, you can switch up to any plan Zoom offers you. This is because the prices are quite reasonable.
2- Twilio
Twilio is another SaaS company you have to watch out for. Twilio offers you a strong API that is designed for phone services – which in turn enables companies to make and receive phone calls, as well as text messages. Any programmer can easily integrate various communication methods such as video calls and solve problems related to communication with their skills and expertise.
Recently, Twilio explicitly stated that they had a “revenue of $668.9 million for the second quarter of 2022, up 67% year-over-year, including $46.6 million from Twilio Segment.”
Some key features of Twilio can be listed as;
- It has a versatile SMS API. This means that you can create any text message you desire. Plus it can be connected to your applications and websites.
- The resources page offers you lots of required information about how to get started with your SMS campaign.
- Customer service is responsive and helpful.
- Thanks to its language supply, any programmer can work with Twilio.
The pricing of Twilio is another thing we should point out. If you ever are to benefit from the services of Twilio, you don’t have to pay the unnecessary price for some features you will not use. They have sectioned every feature pack and expect you to pay according to what you want.
3- Microsoft
Here is one tech company giant! You know that Microsoft needs no introduction. Being one of the oldest SaaS companies, Microsoft provides different software according to your needs. During these days, the most renowned one is Microsoft 365 – formerly known as Office 365.
Microsoft 365 is a cloud collaboration tool that enables you to have a private and secure space to store and share documents. Via Microsoft 365’s calendar, messaging, and conferencing tools, you can connect different teams easily.
Microsoft has multiple sources of income under its umbrella. Although it might not be the most profitable one, Microsoft officially stated that products and cloud services revenue – that are linked to Microsoft 365 – increased by $3.1 billion or 12%. You do the math.
Here are some key features that make Microsoft 365 one of the best SaaS of 2022;
- You can work from anywhere. Microsoft 365 supports all the devices you can think of. You can track changes done to your documents while riding on a bus.
- Apps have become the sector standards. These apps of top quality are required for most people to know and they do what they do best.
- The interface of Microsoft 365 is an all-in-one app. With that, you can schedule meetings, send emails, and reach out to your documents quite easily.
- You know you will be secure when using Microsoft 365. It has several measures of safety, such as Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics, Office message encryption, multi-factor authentication.
Just like Twilio, you pay what you use with Microsoft 365. It has three essential plans: Home, Business, and Enterprise. These plans have their sub-plans, and you can choose one of them to use according to your needs.
4- Adobe Creative Cloud
Up next, we have a SaaS designed for designers. Adobe Creative Cloud is a suite for graphic designing and video editing. With Adobe Creative Cloud, companies can publish layouts, edit images, manage PDF documents, and collaborate with designers regardless of any platform. Its libraries make you remotely access, organize and share assets from a repository.
Adobe Creative Cloud’s total revenue between 2018 to 2020 can be found on their site. However, if you feel lazy to look at it, Adobe Creative Cloud made; $5.34 billion in 2018, $6.48 billion in 2019, and $7.74 billion in 2020. When the official numbers came, we expected to see that number very close to $10 billion for 2023.
If you wonder what makes Adobe Creative Cloud one of the most dominant players of the SaaS industry, here is why;
- Adobe Creative Clouds offer you a SaaS app marketplace in which you can find any app regarding your needs.
- The focus on creative design and customer experience is of great significance with Adobe.
- The support for any operating system, including mobile devices.
- An AI engine that recommends and executes creative edits, namely Adobe Sensei
- Solutions for every business that includes graphic design.
5- Grammarly
If you are dealing with any type of writing content, then chances are you know Grammarly. Grammarly assists people in generating grammatically correct content across various contexts such as emails, web pages, whitepapers, etc. Grammarly utilizes AI technology and NLP (natural language processing) tools to improve readability, word choice, and style with suggestions and alerts.
Finding Grammarly’s revenue is difficult since the company insists on keeping that information classified. However, some people say that Grammarly makes ~ $70 million per year. The CEO of Grammarly also points out that they are constantly growing, both user and revenue-wise.
There are features that make Grammarly one of the best editors in the industry; these are some of them;
- You can set the tone by yourself with Grammarly. This means that you can set your target audience, the tone of your text, and formality.
- Chrome extension is a lifesaver. This extension is easy to use and practically works on every site, even if it does not contain any text.
- You can add Grammarly to Microsoft Word. It is shown by a separate section and you can get writing help, support, and plagiarism checker with the help of this tab.
- It finds ten times more mistakes than any other web-based editor.
Grammarly can be used totally free and provides you with a great writing experience. For some additional features, such as the style guide or plagiarism checker, you have to switch to any paid plan.
6- Salesforce
Every SaaS provider knows and learns from Salesforce. It set the standard for CRM tools. Every growing business can use Salesforce in order to have customer relationship management – and almost all of them use Salesforce to do so. For most of the teams, Salesforce is a lifelong partner. This is mainly due to its adaptability to changing situations and demands.
According to Reuters, Salesforce’s annual revenue surpassed the expected $25.76 billion by almost $250 million in 2023. This is another proof of Salesforce being a worldwide brand and used by companies of different sizes.
But why do people choose Salesforce? Here is why;
- The features Salesforce offers to its users are second to none. These features include advanced account management, marketing management, and 24/7 customer support.
- Ease of use is an important thing with all SaaS. Salesforce is not short of this and provides its users with a straightforward interface. This means that the majority of your time will be spent on business.
- Third-party integrations are another strength of Salesforce. The app market has lots of apps you can integrate and benefit from. It helps you to manage your customer relations easier.
7- SurveyMonkey
The people who value customer feedback probably know SurveyMonkey and how useful it is. As one can infer from the name, SurveyMonkey is an online survey tool that helps you create a survey in different styles. SurveyMonkey supports various types of questions, such as video questions or multiple-choice questions. You can create a survey regarding any topic you want.
Although one might think that it is just a simple online survey tool, SurveyMonkey has a way bigger share in the cake. The total revenue of SurveyMonkey in 2020 was $101 million. It shows an increase of 20% the previous year. As research and feedback lay more on online tools, SurveyMonkey will show more profit.
Here are some features that make SurveyMonkey a prospering SaaS;
- Data processing is not a problem of SurveyMonkey. The built-in tools of SurveyMonkey help you create, collect, and analyze data.
- You might have heard of a question bank, but not SurveyMonkey. This question bank contains questions that you can customize to use. Also, the question bank is made up of questions from a variety of topics. So, you can find any question that may be useful for you.
- The data and questions are secure. SurveyMonkey has been approved by HIPAA, Norton, and TRUSTe. So, people who are giving personal information know that their data will not be leaked by anyone.
Although SurveyMonkey offers you a free plan, you can change your plan according to the number of questions and your goals. After you purchase your plan, you can always get targeted responses. This means that you set up a demographic, and SurveyMonkey sends your survey to that demographic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the largest SaaS provider?
Regarding total market capitalization, Salesforce is the largest SaaS provider in the industry.
Who are the top players in the SaaS industry?
Currently, the top players of the SaaS industry can be Microsoft, Adobe, and Salesforce.
Is Netflix a SaaS company?
Yes, Netflix is indeed a SaaS company. Since Netflix provides you software to watch movies and series, and you can subscribe to Netflix on a monthly basis, we can call Netflix a SaaS company.
